Last year, Good Samaritan Health Centers of Gwinnett celebrated two decades of operating the area’s only low-cost clinics that provide affordable care to uninsured residents.
CEO Shameka Allen said the nonprofit’s sustainable model allows it to continue providing health care that removes the affordability and accessibility barriers facing many community members from diverse backgrounds.
“We changed the model [in 2013] to become a charitable, low-cost medical center, meaning we stopped being free,” Allen said, who has been with the nonprofit since 2021. “We started hiring staff so that we could see more patients and they could have more time with the providers.”
Good Samaritan Gwinnett has two medical and dental clinics in southern Gwinnett on both sides of Interstate 85. One is off Buford Highway near downtown Norcross, and the other clinic is near Rockbridge Road and Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
Introducing Good Sam
Since 2005, Good Sam Gwinnett has served more than 58,000 unique individuals across the region. Today, it provides between $10 million and $13 million annually in health care services.
Rough Draft Atlanta stopped by the West Gwinnett clinic off Buford Highway in Norcross to chat with the CEO about the nonprofit’s work in the community.
Allen said the vast majority of patients have a low income, but some visit the clinic after losing their insurance or amid a crisis. The nonprofit estimates that more than a quarter of the working population in Gwinnett County has no health insurance.
“Our goal in our model was to be able to eliminate barriers to care,” Allen said. “We don’t ask for you to bring your light bill … we do ask for a government-issued ID, so we can just validate who you are for treatment purposes.”
As the only safety-net clinic in the area providing medical, dental, and pharmacy services under one roof, a visit is often a patient’s introduction to the American health care system.
Patients in need
Good Sam Gwinnett does not have geographic or income requirements, Allen said. That model differs from separate Good Samaritan Health centers in metro Atlanta.
The nonprofit does not ask for citizenship status and has not reported any immigration enforcement operations near its clinics. A vast majority of patients are documented.
While it may be difficult to eliminate all health disparities, one goal of the nonprofit is to lessen how often uninsured people use emergency rooms, which can burden patients and hospitals.
“A lot of people don’t have a good concept of what primary care is, and this is not just the immigrant population, but even among people who were born and raised here in the states,” Allen said. “When you don’t have places like Good Sam, when that person finally gets sick for the first time, they go to the ER.”
Because of the nonprofit’s track record in the community, hospitals like Northside Gwinnett in Duluth and Lawrenceville refer patients in non-emergency situations to Good Sam.
Rough Draft asked Allen whether patients are primarily individuals or if the health clinic serves families.
“Typically, when we see one, we see the whole family,” she said. “We can treat someone as early as six months, and I think our oldest patient is 93. That’s the great part about having staff, because some of my providers have been treating the same patients for years.”
Making health care affordable
The nonprofit does not take federal funding, which has allowed it to keep medical care prices flat for the last four years as costs have increased. By not accepting Medicaid/Medicare, Allen said doctors have the flexibility to provide the care they see fit.
Good Sam purchased its brick-and-mortar locations, which used to be run-down retail centers, through the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s Community Development Block Grant Program.
Allen said former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge visited the East clinic a couple of years ago and spoke about the benefits of the formula-based grants for low- and moderate-income families.
“Most of our funding is through patient fees,” Allen said. “About 30% to 40% is what we have to fundraise any given year. That’s usually through private donations and grants
Many metro Atlanta nonprofits, especially in the health care industry, have seen government funding and grants dry up since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Allen said Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett’s model is sustainable, which has allowed it to evolve successfully.
Training health care professionals
Another Good Sam Gwinnett initiative is its Access Academy, a certificate-granting, low-cost training program targeting low-income households interested in the medical profession.
Allen said training entry-level medical assistants is an expansion of the nonprofit’s mission to provide career avenues to the community it already serves each day. She brands the initiative as workforce development
“It’s designed to mimic the same type of demographic we see in our patient population,” Allen said. “We were letting folks do clinical rotations here, and it was pretty coveted because we see so many different types of cases here.”
Access Academy classes are currently taught at 1175 Commercial Court, and tuition is locked in at an affordable price for the five-month program. The program’s first cohort graduated in December.
Allen said she thinks Good Sam Gwinnett is set up for long-term success in the community. She said a site for the nonprofit’s training program has been selected next to Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville.
“You have to have innovation,” Allen said. “That’s one of the reasons why we did the school … it’s going to provide a service, but it’s also additional funding. You have to continue to expand and figure out what your community needs.”